Announcements: Rosalyn Higgins Prize; Reading Seminars; Asser PhD Workshop; CfP Forests at the Crossroads of International Law; CfP De-legalization of International Law; CfA International Journal of Refugee Law; International Rule of Law Fellowship; Criminal Penalties in EU Law Conference; Minerva LAW Network Event; Digital Rights and Human Rights Seminar

1. The Law & Practice of International Courts and Tribunals: 2023 Rosalyn Higgins Prize. The Rosalyn Higgins Prize is an annual prize which awards EUR 1.000 of Brill book vouchers and a one-year LPICT subscription to the author of the best article on the law and practice of the International Court of Justice, either focusing solely on the ICJ or with the ICJ as one of the dispute settlement mechanisms under consideration. The winning article will also be published in LPICT and made freely available online for ninety days to maximize its dissemination.  The deadline is 15 May 2023. More information can be found here.  

2. Revised schedule of Global Law at Reading Seminars: Global Law at Reading (GLAR) has announced a revised schedule of speakers for the Spring Term Gandhi Research Seminar Series. Some of the previously announced seminars have had to be rescheduled due to ongoing industrial action at British universities. On 20 February GLAR will host Dr Danny Orbach (Hebrew University), whose topic will be: “Let the Commander Respond”: The Paradox of Obedience in the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces. This seminar will be held IN PERSON at the Whiteknights Campus, Palmer Building room 108, at 1pm UK time. Professor Aoife Nolan’s (University of Nottingham) talk on Giving Meaning to Social Rights in Europe at a Time of Pressure – the European Social Charter System in Action has been rescheduled for 6 March, 12 noon UK time. Professor Dapo Akande (University of Oxford) will give his talk on Changes in Treaty Interpretation – The ICRC’s Revised Commentaries to the Geneva Conventions on 9 March, 2pm UK time. The seminars by Professors Nolan and Akande will be held ONLINE and the MS Teams links for joining are available here.

3. PhD Workshop on Methodologies for Socio-Technical Approaches to Legal Research. On 23 May 2023, the Asser Institute/University of Amsterdam is hosting a PhD workshop on methodologies for socio-technical approaches to legal research. The workshop aims to cultivate and enhance participants’ understanding of the implications of methodological choices for socio-technical research design and promote dialogue to identify common themes, assumptions and constraints of methodological approaches. This workshop features both seminars providing an advanced introduction to socio-technical research design and panel sessions where participants receive feedback on their work. This workshop is open to PhD researchers conducting studies at the intersection of law and technology. This includes a variety of approaches to studying law, as well as a broad understanding of technologies, including all systems from the most sophisticated to more rudimentary technical tools. The call for abstracts is open until 15 March 2022.  To learn more about the workshop see here.

4. Call for Papers: Forests at the Crossroads of International Law. The University of Copenhagen (Centre for International Law and Governance) has issued a call for papers for a workshop on the theme “Forests at the crossroads of international law”, taking place in Copenhagen on the 4 –  5 September 2023. The deadline for abstract submission is 31 March 2023, and the call can be found here.

5. Call for Papers: The De-legalization of International Law – Social Science Perspectives. In the context of the 18th ESIL Annual Conference in Aix-en-Provence, the ESIL Interest Group on Social Sciences and International Law will hold a pre-conference workshop on The De-legalization of International Law. The Workshop will be held on 30 August 2023, 13:00-16:00 (CET) and 16:00-19:00 (CET). Young and senior researchers are invited to submit proposals exploring processes of de-legalization, different explanations regarding the factors accounting for de-legalization, as well as mechanisms that address the effects of or challenges posed by instances of de-legalization. Deadline for abstracts is 10 April 2023 at 12:00 CET.  For more details, see the full Call for Papers.

6. Call for Abstracts: International Journal of Refugee Law – Special Issue on Gender. Refugee claims, where either the form of the persecution, or the reason for it, related to gender, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity continue to proliferate. Despite this, developments in many jurisdictions present a picture that is at best mixed, with prominent experts noting that progress has stalled. The International Journal of Refugee Law invites abstracts of 300 words – for articles up to 8,000 words (including footnotes) – to explore the problems and possibilities in this area of the law. They should focus on the legal aspects of gender in refugee protection, rather than broader humanitarian or policy-oriented issues. Deadline 31 March 2023. Full details are available here.

7. Applications for Fellowship: The International Rule of Law – Rise or Decline. The Berlin Potsdam Research Group “The International Rule of Law – Rise or Decline?” invites applications for a Fellowship in International Law, International Relations or Political Philosophy. This is a fixed-term position for a period of 12 months. The fellow will work at Freie Universität Berlin and co-operate with the group’s senior researchers and participate in the academic exchange of the Research Group. The Research Group examines the role of international law in a changing global order. Applicants should have completed their PhD before joining the group and should not have pursued more than 2 years of postdoctoral research. Applicants are not required to speak German. Further details are available here.

8. Proportionality of Criminal Penalties in EU Law Conference. On 11 – 12 May 2023, the Law Department of the University of Turin will host the international conference Proportionality of Criminal Penalties in EU Law. The event is jointly organised by the University of Turin (Prof. Stefano Montaldo), the University of Liverpool (Prof. Valsamis Mitsilegas) and the University of Milan Bicocca (Lorenzo Grossio). The conference aims at fostering scholarly reflection on the theorisation, application and place of the principle of proportionality of criminal penalties within the EU legal order, in the light of recent developments in case-law and practice. On that occasion, the organisers have launched a call for papers to be presented during the conference. Authors are invited to submit a max 800-word abstract (in English), together with a short CV, by 5 March 2023. Applications must be sent via email to the Organising Committee at conference.proportionality2023 {at} gmail(.)com. The Call may be downloaded here.

9. Minerva LAW Network Event: Law for a Better Future – The Experience of an Interdisciplinary Approach. This Minerva LAW Network event, by Professor Marie-Claire Foblets, will take place on 17 February 2023. Many different conceptions of law exist side by side in multicultural societies – a reality that formal legal systems have ignored for far too long, according to Marie-Claire Foblets. As Director of the Department for Law and Anthropology at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (since 2012), she hopes to help change this situation. Having been born in Belgium and spending most of her youth in that country, Prof. Foblets soon became interested in plural societies and the conditions for sustainable peace among diverse groups. She was trained in law at the universities of Antwerp (1977-1979) and Leuven (1979-1982) in Belgium, and also studied Thomist philosophy in parallel with law. Thanks to a study fellowship (1982-1983), she was given the opportunity to pursue further study in philosophy at the Wilhelms-Universität of Münster, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, and to complete her studies in social and cultural anthropology (1985). Further details and information on registration are available here. The event will be held online. 

10. SCIEL Seminar: Digital Rights and the Outer Limits of International Human Rights Law. The Sheffield Centre for International and European Law (SCIEL) will host Professor Yuval Shany, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem who will be speaking on the subject of Digital Rights and the Outer Limits of International Human Rights Law on 24 February 2023. Register here and see the event abstract. Time: 4 – 5.30pm. Location: Hybrid: On-campus – Bartolomé House (Moot Court), Winter Street, Sheffield, S3 7ND; and, online – Joining links will be sent the day before the event. All SCIEL members, students and public members are invited to attend this hybrid seminar. A joining link will be provided to those that sign up via Eventbrite the day of the event.